1. Field of Invention
A ligature system adjustable to fit most saxophone and clarinet mouthpiece is disclosed with improved responsiveness to player.
2. Description of Related Art
U.S. Pat. Nos. 1,449,868, 4,056,997, 4,275,636, 5,000,073, 6,130,376 and 7,737,350 B2
3. Related Art
U.S. Pat. No. 1,449,868 from Miller is an early patent reference for a ligature that uses of a single clamp screw for clamping a reed to a mouthpiece with the screw being attached by a swivel to the bridge of the disclosed ligature. Further details of the swivel attachment are not disclosed.
The concepts disclosed in Miller have evolved and are presently used in currently popular ligatures. An example is the prior art ubiquitous ligature for the Otto Link metal mouthpiece which has a reed contactor which is implemented as a sheet metal pressure plate with a concave surface approximately matching the convex radius of the chosen reed surface. The end of the screw is typically stepped to a cylindrical diameter smaller than the thread diameter which passes through a clearance hole in the metal pressure plate which is thinner than the height of the step. The end is then loosely swaged for retention. This vertical and radial looseness provides a rotational pivoting capability of the reed contactor with respect to the ligature.
By providing very small areas of contact this rotational pivoting mechanism provides excellent mechanical vibrational isolation between the pressure plate and the ligature. The ligature has several problems for meeting the goals that this disclosed invention resolves. First, the ligature still uses a thin metal band that touches a large area of the mouthpiece resulting with limited mechanical vibrational isolation between the vibrating mouthpiece and reed with respect to the ligature. Second, to be adjustable for the full range of saxophone mouthpieces requires a vertical adjustment range of adjustment of almost 0.60 inches. This potentially introduces an over-center stability issue where the structure is may collapse when a reasonably sized adjustment screw is fully extended for use on a small soprano mouthpiece.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,056,997 by Rovner is typical of today's popular saxophone and clarinet ligatures. It discloses a reed holding device for the mouthpiece of a musical instrument in which a single unitary strip extends around and in engagement with the outer surfaces of portions of the reed and the mouthpiece to secure the reed to the mouthpiece. It differs substantially from this disclosed invention as it provides limited isolation from the vibrating reed and mouthpiece as it touches both the reed and mouthpiece with many small areas of contact. An individual ligature has a limited adjustment range and thus it works with a small number of mouthpiece sizes.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,275,636 of Van Doren is another currently popular ligature that touches the clamped single sized reed at two narrow areas of contact that are in a perpendicular direction to those of this disclosure. The outside metal portion of this ligature also directly contacts the mouthpiece at many contact points resulting with many small areas of contact between the mouthpiece and ligature thus limiting its mechanical vibration isolation potential. This is also a ligature designed for use with small range of mouthpiece sizes.
Hite U.S. Pat. No. 5,000,073 discloses a metal ligature that is formed to provide two pairs of circumferential lines 49 & 52 that make contact with the mouthpiece 10. The stated goal of this ligature was to clamp the reed at the reed's nodal points which is a substantially different goal than vibrational isolation as this ligature has many points of contact with a mouthpiece. The Hite invention is also restricted for use to a narrow range of mouthpiece sizes.
Wanne U.S. Pat. No. 7,737,350 B2 discloses a ligature that adapts to all mouthpiece sizes by providing a thin band that encircles the mouthpiece with a player adjustable length. It differs from the present disclosure in two regards. First the tension in the thin metal band is created by the band touching the mouthpiece in many places which typically provides poor vibration isolation. Also the reed contactor has a concave shape which may not be optimal for use with the desired range of four or five reed sizes.
Chang U.S. Pat. No. 6,130,376 is a patent that discloses a ligature that is versatile enough to fit differing sized mouthpieces. To accomplish this goal Chang provides U-shaped ring retaining bars or hooks that accept bead chains or similar elements to provide a split band around the mouthpiece. Different sizes of mouthpieces are adjusted by selecting a different number of beads or elements to change the length of the band. This approach touches the mouthpiece at each bead which provides many more small areas of contact between the mouthpiece and ligature than this disclosed invention thus probably having poorer mechanical vibration isolation.
An aspect of most prior art ligatures is that the one or two pairs of screw threads are used for tightening the reed to the mouthpiece. These screw threads are either at the top or bottom of the mouthpiece and the axes of theses threads is typically horizontal.
Another characteristic of many prior art ligatures is that there are many points of contact between the ligature and the mouthpiece and these contact points can be unevenly distributed. This can result with substantially different responsiveness to the player from nominally identical ligatures while a musician plays with the same horn, mouthpiece and reed.
It is well understood that in a typical mechanical, single reed woodwind musical instrument, energy in a steady air stream is converted to airborne acoustical energy by virtue of the air stream being throttled by an air actuated vibrating reed, with the acoustical output usually being coupled to a resonant air column to produce musical sounds. This effect can be described as the “air” sound of the instrument.
The second major sonic component of a woodwind instrument is the conversion into sound of the mechanical vibrations of the body of the instrument. This can be described as the “body” sound of the instrument. The second important component of the woodwind sound is not as well understood in the ligature prior art. An important source of excitation for this body sound is the mechanical vibrations of the mouthpiece-reed-ligature system. The responsiveness felt by the player and the characteristic sound of the instrument are influenced by this “body” sound. The design, construction and the adjustments by the player of a ligature have an important effect upon the amplitude and quality of body sound produced. The majority of sound produced by the instrument is the combination of the air and body sounds.
Some woodwind players have occasionally left a reed and ligature on a mouthpiece while the instrument is left on its stand or put in a case. In this situation the dried player's saliva will sometimes hold the reed on to the mouthpiece such that it can be played without a ligature. This situation provides excellent acoustic performance and responsiveness to the player up until the weak ‘saliva adhesive’ bond breaks and the reed pops off. This configuration enables the attached reed to fully to excite the mouthpiece and the attached instrument body to produce a desired musical tone without the loss of vibrational energy from friction and unwanted excitation of undesirable vibrational modes otherwise occurring within a conventional ligature structure.
This ‘saliva ligature’ experiment demonstrates excellent responsiveness to a player where the absence of a ligature theoretically provides the ideal of 100 percent isolation. The level mechanical vibrational isolation of a particular ligature can be subjectively measured when a competent sax player with his or her own instrument, mouthpiece and reed compares a ligature to this ideal ‘saliva ligature’. A high level of vibration isolation is demonstrated when this competent sax player can tell very little difference in responsiveness or sound between a ligature under test and the above “saliva adhesive” ligature.